Shootboxing and Shooto have announced the second cross-promotional matchup to take place at Shoot the Shooto 2011 on November 6th and it is #1 ranked Super Featherweight Hiroaki Suzuki taking on MMA fighter "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura. "Wicky" trains with fellow Shoot the Shooto participant "Lion" Takeshi Inoue and, like his training partner, is primarily a striker. Also like his training partner, he fought most of his career in Shooto until being called up by DREAM, ultimately settling in there. Nishiura has struggled a bit in MMA lately despite training under Matt Hume, losing his last two fights to Mitsuhiro Ishida and Caol Uno despite his improving take down defense. "Wicky" has some kickboxing experience, though, as he fought 2010 K-1 -63kg champion Tetsuya Yamato to a draw at Dynamite!!! 2010. Suzuki is currently on a 3-fight win streak and has won 6 of his last 7, with 3 of those wins coming over MMA fighters Mitsuhiro Ishida, Tenkei Oda and Shigeki Osawa. It is an interesting matchup considering "Wicky" fought Yamato to a draw and his strange style could present problems for Suzuki. I expect this fight to be close.

Already announced for the card is a matchup between MMA fighter "Lion" Takeshi Inoue and SB rep Hiroki Shishido. If Shooto continues to pick fighters from Shooting Gym Yokohama, an entertaining matchup could be made between Shooto title challenger Junji "Sarumaru" Ito and former Shootboxing champion Ryuya Kusakabe. Still expected to compete from the Shootboxing side are Andy Souwer, Bovy Sor Udomson and Toby Imada. {jcomments on}